MAME, Mutilates the emulator by a demand

General Off-Topic
#1

We will all say, “Emulation is legal”, and it is true. A friend’s copyright lawyer explained that it is not only about the code, there are many edges, it can be argued that it allows it to reproduce the logo. But, maybe the main reason, is that developers can not ensure that their code is not going to be used to commit a crime “Apology for crime”.

Defending a demand for this magnitude can cost a lot of money and can spread for years, and at that time the project can be frozen. Then the development team, intelligently decided to accept “legal requirement” to avoid bureaucratic conflicts.

But this can be worse, they just accepted the ruling, legally accepted that they committed a crime. Other companies can do the same and little by little, dismember Mame. If the big companies at the same time report their brands, Mame disappears in 24 hours, is a miracle that exists. If the King falls, a dark time will begin on the emulation.

Read the Reddit, it is luxurious.

So, interesting, it begins 2021.

#2

The developers say it’s not really about legality and there’s precedent for it anyway.

#3

And what else could they say?

#4

Their take is rooted in reality, MAME isn’t going to be crippled by some mass arrival of C&Ds in the near future. Willing to bet money on this.

#5

I’m horrified for different reasons :

  1. as said in the commit removing that support, they basically didn’t care about those games, so they didn’t even want to argue while that C&D seemed hardly legal…
  2. in that same commit, was the statement that they would prefer going legal against organization violating their trademark than going legal about this C&D really necessary ? they are obviously talking about libretro here, because they consider using “mame” in “mame2010” is a violation of their trademark while using it in “mame4droid” is not…
  3. iirc, that “ShouTime” guy responsible for this C&D is a dumper they have been in a relationship with, a controversary one that led them to stop working with some other dumpers…
#6

Awesome news, “ShouTime” contributed a new dump as reparation : “Mahjong Block Jongbou 2”. It’s seemingly well worth it for the mamedevs since the game is rarer, so there is no reason for users to feel down about the loss of popular cave games, maybe he’ll contribute a rare cigarette vending machine OS next :partying_face:.

3 Likes
#7

If he is the legal representative of Capcom, Namco, Konami and Sega, with a single letter would suffice… it’s a joke, that will never happen or at least not in our times.

#8

These letters always come accompanied by legal information, if not, Mamedev has the right to ask him to verify that he is the legal representative. What I see in this letter is rather a notice, something like “If you keep misbehaving, I’ll beat you.”
The problem is not the legality of the letter, is that Mamedev accepted, I create a “legal precedent”. What would happen if it is Capcom who sends the C&D?

Retroarch has no problems with previous mames, previous programs are not affected, you can not change unless a new version is made.
It is also divided by components and each emulator is an independent entity, that is very important.

MAME If you have problems, it is a show that encompasses everything, all under the same name.

#9

It can be terribly fun to buy a cigarette box on a vending machine. :laughing: